“We’re going to be doing things militarily until we can have a wall and proper security.” Trump said.

Trump’s comments came as he sat next to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who was reportedly at the White House for discussions around immigration. However, a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity had no immediate details as to how many troops would be used or what authorities they would have.

Fear of missing out?

Fear no longer. Be the first to hear about breaking news, as it happens. You'll get alerts delivered directly to your inbox each time something noteworthy happens in the Military community.

Thanks for signing up.

By giving us your email, you are opting in to our Newsletter: Sign up for the Early Bird Brief

In that operation, President George W. Bush called for up to 6,000 National Guard members to secure parts of the border. Eventually 29,000 military personnel from all over the country were involved in the mission, which had a projected cost of around $1.2 billion in then-year dollars.

In 2012, President Barack Obama deployed Army forces from Fort Bliss to the Tucson, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, areas for Operation Nimbus, a joint operation between U.S. Northern Command and Customs and Border Patrol.

Per an Army press release at the time, military forces conducted “day and night reconnaissance missions using the Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System to detect, recognize, identify and geo-locate possible incursions, which they would then report to Border Patrol agents. Avenger Soldiers, using the Forward Looking Infrared system, and Soldiers monitoring Sentinel radar, also augmented border air incursion detection efforts.”